Johnny Kilbane

Johnny Kilbane
Statistics
Real name	John Patrick Kilbane
Nickname(s)	Johnny
Rated at	Featherweight
Nationality	United States Of America
Born	(1889-04-09)April 9, 1889 Cleveland, Ohio
Died	Cleveland, Ohio
Boxing record
Total fights	142
Wins	110
Wins by KO	24
Losses	4
Draws	15
No contests	1

John "Johnny" Patrick Kilbane (April 9, 1889 – May 31, 1957) was a featherweight boxer in the early part of the 20th century. He held the world featherweight title from 1912 to 1923, the longest period in the division's history. He is the second longest world title holder in boxing history behind Joe Louis. Statistical boxing website BoxRec lists Kilbane as the #2 ranked featherweight of all-time, while The Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer placed him at #5. The International Boxing Research Organization rates Kilbane as the 8th best featherweight ever. He was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1960 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early life

Kilbane was born to John and Mary (Gallagher) Kilbane in Cleveland, Ohio on April 9, 1889. His mother died when he was 3 years old and his father went blind when he was 6. He attended school until the sixth grade when he dropped out to help support his family.

Career

Kilbane's first professional fight was in 1907, for which he earned $25.

World featherweight champion

In 1912 Kilbane took the featherweight title from Abe Atell. When he returned to Cleveland, on St. Patrick's Day, he was given the greatest welcome ever given to a native Clevelander, with more than 100,000 people turning out. He held the featherweight championship for 11 years through numerous fights. He finally lost it to Eugene Criqui. (The high number of "no decision"s in his career reflects early boxing rules in many states in the U.S. that dictated "no decision"—ND—unless a fight ended by knockout).

In October 1917, Kilbane became a lieutenant in the U.S. Army — assigned to Camp Sherman located near Chillicothe, Ohio — training U.S. soldiers self-defense during World War I.

After losing the featherweight title in 1923, Kilbane then had two known exhibition fights and won both of them, although it has been confirmed that he fought more exhibition fights because while the opponents' names haven't been listed by boxing resources, the date of the fights have been. Following all his exhibition fights, Kilbane then announced his retirement from boxing.

Life after boxing

Kilbane would then go onto referee boxing matches after retiring from boxing, as well as operating a gym, serving in the Ohio General Assembly and as Clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court.

Kilbane was such a popular prizefighter in his day that his name appeared in print as a verb. An unsigned commentary in the sports pages of the New York Times on May 16, 1912, reported on an episode involving Detroit baseball player Ty Cobb, who the day before, in a game between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees, had gone into the stands after a heckler. The commentary said, "The famous baseball player from Detroit, Ty Cobb chased after a heckler during a game with the New York Yankees and 'Johnny Kilbaned' him right where he stood...and in so doing stopped the profane and intolerable language dead in its tracks, along with the heckler himself". Kilbane was a distant relative of the Irish boxer John Joe Nevin, the footballer Darren Fletcher, the wrestler Giant Haystacks and the Irish footballer Kevin Kilbane. His family was originally from Achill, County Mayo, Ireland.

He died on May 31, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio.

External links

• Professional boxing record for Johnny Kilbane from BoxRec
• Johnny Kilbane at Flickr Commons
• Johnny Kilbane

Achievements
Preceded by Abe Attell	World Featherweight Champion February 22, 1912 – June 2, 1923	Succeeded by Eugène Criqui